The upside to David Leyonhjelm's comments

By Jacinta Tynan

It might be hard to believe right now, but there is an upside to the recent controversy surrounding Senator David Leyonhjelm.

It’s an inadvertent upside, yes. Spreading the love is certainly not his intention. But it’s there.

Sarah Hanson-Young says David Leyonhjelm hurled sexist abuse at her during a debate on violence against women.Credit:Fairfax Media

Leyonhjelm's made a brazen and vile sexist slur against his colleague, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, in which he called to her across the senate chamber to “stop shagging men” (ironically during a debate about violence against women). He later fumbled to justify how it was in response to her allegedly suggesting that "all men are rapists" (there is no evidence of Hanson-Young ever saying this, and she denies the comment).

When Hanson-Young confronted Leyonhjelm about it, there was no grovelling apology, no standard political defence of "misspeaking" or being quoted out of context. Nope. He told her to "f--- off".

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A woman has been abused, vilified and blatantly "slut-shamed" (in her words) with great fervour by a work colleague in front of the nation who, days later, and that colleague is still sticking to his guns.

Hanson-Young swiftly and bravely leapt to her own defence.

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“I am not going to be intimidated, I am not going to be bullied,” she said on The Project.

Not surprisingly, many women wouldn’t have the position or, as she herself acknowledged, the platform to speak up or fight back.

“Many women cop sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace and don’t have the ability. I’m doing this for them,” she said.

Because, far more powerful than women standing up for themselves is women – and men – standing up for other women.

And this parody of Leyonhjelm’s (oh, no, that's right, it was real) has seen a number of people use their privileged platforms to call him out.

Journalist Virginia Trioli sharply took him to task on ABC’s 7.30 about his (still, as yet) baseless claims of Hanson-Young calling men “sexual predators”.

“Do you see, as it would seem virtually everyone in Australia sees right now, how offensive, how inappropriate and hurtful those remarks are?” she asked him.

(He didn’t. Still doesn’t. He declined the opportunity to apologise, as he continues to do.)

Studio Ten co-host Angela Bishop got Leyonhjelm on air to confront him after he called her a “bigoted bitch” on Twitter. No apology there, either.

Then there was Sky News host and former political staffer Peta Credlin who used her air time to launch into a no-holds-barred, five-minute live editorial on the matter.

As Credlin pointed out, her political views couldn’t be more divergent from Sarah Hanson-Young’s. But when it comes to speaking out against the tired and damaging pattern of sexual innuendo hurled at women in parliament, she stands united.

“It’s a tactic used by mediocre blokes to put women they’re threatened by back in their box,” Credlin said. “This is how the system works for those gutless weaklings unable to beat you on merit. They try to hound you out, shame you, bully you. It’s never about your brain or what you believe but far more personal criticisms designed to wound. Blokes like Leyonhjelm expect you to cower, to pull back, to quit. Which is all the more reason why we shouldn't – in politics or any other area of life”.

She revealed that Senator Leyonhjelm had once tweeted her to "STFU" ("shut the f--- up").

“Good luck with that, you idiot; I won’t,” she retorted.

Hanson-Young ended up tweeting her thanks to Credlin, and to the many others who had stood beside her.

Peta Credlin, like many women, is fired up because she’s been there. And, until recently, like most women, she didn’t have a public platform to say so or call perpetrators to account.

That’s the silver lining in all of this.

When men behave badly, women are letting it be known they’ll no longer sit back and let it wash.

When sexism and abuse are dished out, there can be an opposite, more powerful, reaction. We’ve seen it with #MeToo and #TimesUp and Australia’s #NOW campaign. We saw it when millions marched around the world in protest against US President Donald Trump’s shameless misogyny.

And we’ve seen it this week as the sexual slurs against a female politician hurled across the floor of parliament have acted as a unifying force.

If more women with power can find the strength within to fight back when under attack in corridors, offices, or halls of parliament, it might just inspire those who don’t think they have any.

And for men to think twice.

Jacinta Tynan is a Sky News Presenter and Sunday Life columnist @jacintatynan